File image.
Ukraine’s southern port city of Odessa and the surrounding region were targeted by hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in a massive strike over the night of December 12 and 13.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a statement posted to Telegram that Russia had attacked Ukraine with over 450 drones and 30 missiles.
“The brunt of the attack was on our energy system, on the south and Odessa region,” he wrote.
Ukraine’s power grid operator later acknowledged a “significant number” of households were without power in the southern regions of Odessa and Mykolaiv. It also said that the Ukrainian-controlled part of the frontline Kherson region was totally without power.
A total of 14 electrical substations and about 10 transformer stations supplying the ports in Odessa and the surrendering region were reportedly knocked out.
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced later on December 13 that the “massive strike” was a response “to the terrorist attacks launched by Ukraine against civilian facilities on the territory of Russia.”
In a statement, the ministry said that “ground- and sea-based high-precision weapons, Kinzhal air-ballistic hypersonic missiles, and long-range unmanned aerial vehicles” were used to target “Ukrainian defence industry enterprises and energy facilities providing their work.”
“The goals of the strike were achieved. All the assigned targets were engaged,” it added.
It’s worth noting that just a few hours before the start of the strike, a cargo ship in the port of Chornomorsk in Odessa was damaged as a result of a drone attack. The vessel was reportedly transporting military cargo.
Ukraine carried out its own attack on Russian territory overnight. The Russian MoD said in a statement that 41 drones were downed overnight, 28 of which were over the Saratov region. The regions of Voronezh, Rostov, Belgorod, and Volgograd, in addition to the Crimean Peninsula, were also targeted.
Saratov Governor Roman Busargin said on Telegram that the two people had been killed, along with an unspecified number of injured, when one of the Ukrainian drones hit a residential building in the city. No other losses were reported anywhere else.
The massive overnight drone and missile strike came following a series of Ukrainian drone attacks on civilian ships bound to Russia. Kiev took responsibility for three of the attacks, claiming that the targets were tankers linked to Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet”.
The strike was likely meant as a warning to Kiev. Russia has the ability to target all ships bound to Ukraine, and even vessels owned by the country way beyond the Black Sea.
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sf traumatize me—my nazi hero in ukraine no liky
moscow will be hit (again) in retaliation…hehehheh
meh, the ukrop still have access to the black sea. if the attack was really massive all the port and dock facilities would be destroyed.
one drone hitting one turkish ship doesn’t really cut it.
the mustard?
if they dont stop attacking russia, eventually the whole place will be blown to shit, zelensky needs to surrender to russian authorities
if you can’t be bothered even following the story line, if you can only repeat rhetorical bs like a trolloping trading semi conscious refugee from reason then you would be better off contributing to alex bon bons efforts at sharing.
protagonist actions to propagate and perpetuate.